


Whiplash in Reverse

by BeanBean8



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Batfam Week 2020, Gen, I finished this at 1 am so bear with me, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Canon Compliant, Not beta read we die like robins, Reverse Robins, but it’s Jason so we know he comes back, i don’t know how to tag, only late af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23326729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeanBean8/pseuds/BeanBean8
Summary: Batfam Week Day 4: Reverse Robins AUBruce had been Batman for fourteen years, and he had thought he’d seen everything. Nothing could have prepared him for a tiny assassin child.And he had been even less prepared for what followed, as one after one, more children crawled into his home and his heart.
Relationships: Jason Todd/Roy Harper/Kori’andr (implied), Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent (implied)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 169





	Whiplash in Reverse

Bruce had been Batman for fourteen years. And after those years, he really thought nothing could surprise him. He’d met aliens, seen magic, travelled to distant planets and fought cosmic beings. He had contingency plans for everything he could think of, from apocalypses to evil teammates. He’d seen different universes, different versions of himself with sidekicks and at least one with questionable facial hair choices. And yet nothing could have prepared him for suddenly being presented with an eleven year old child.

A child that called him father.

A child that had been passed to him by Talia Al Ghul.

Suddenly, Bruce had somehow become a parent. And he was embarrassingly underprepared to be one. Especially to a preteen assassin who not only knew about his nighttime activities, but insisted that he join in them.

A responsible parent would have told Damian that no, he could not fight crime in a costume by night. A responsible parent would have communicated with Damian, told him that he didn’t need to prove himself through violence. Bruce was not a responsible parent.

Three months later, Robin hit the streets of Gotham.

—————

Damian was amazing as Robin, but lately he had been making mistakes. Starting arguments. Running off on his own.

Bruce benched him, though Alfred had advised against it. He shouldn’t have been surprised when his son ran off to spend a month with his friend Jon. 

Damian had sat beside his friend at a certain farm in Kansas, settled on the bed surrounded by knitted blankets and bright posters. Jon told him of a kryptonian story his father had told him. A story of a hero, a beacon of hope, a hero named Nightwing. Damian had seen a hero of this name from other universes. And yet, he liked it. It felt like it could belong to him. 

He had his Titans. He had Crush, Djinn, and all the others, and they needed him. In reality, Damian didn’t need to return home to be a hero. His team had enough work to do to keep him occupied, and there was always Jon to take him on adventures.

It was decided, and together they drew up designs for days and days, refining details and discussing colours. Eventually, he had a new suit, new weapons, and a new name.

Bruce had never felt so proud and yet so sad as the night he saw Nightwing fly.

—————

In hindsight, Bruce was certain he couldn’t have seen Tim coming. Sure, he had noticed the small boy photographing himself and Robin as they patrolled the city. But he hadn’t expected said small boy to turn up at his front door, stare at Bruce Wayne in full civilian persona, and demand to be made Robin.

At least the kid had guts.

But he wouldn’t stop bugging him. Following him. Leaving clues for his open cases at the manor. The final straw was when the kid dressed up as Robin and ran off to help him in a fight. It was then that he realised there was no getting rid of Tim.

So he trained him. Taught him everything he could, started to make amends with Damian so that his son could train him as well. All the while, he prayed he wasn’t making a deadly error. 

When Robin flew once more, Bruce vowed he wouldn’t get attached, promised himself he wouldn’t. But when he held Tim to his chest as he sobbed over the body of Jack Drake, he came to the conclusion that somehow, inexplicably, he’d acquired another son.

As time passed, he worried Tim would grow out of the mantle of Robin. But thanks to a certain mission with the Justice League, he wouldn’t be around to see it.

—————

Bruce never saw Batgirl coming. 

He never expected to have someone running around claiming to be a bat, and yet he had never met them. At least with Kate he had known early on. This Batgirl was a mystery.

A mystery he eventually unravelled. This girl had a name, and her name was Stephanie Brown, daughter of the Cluemaster. And her plan? To ruin her father.

Somehow, Bruce felt the urge to adopt her. Said urge dissipated when Tim began to date her. He wasn’t sure whether to approve or not, but either way it was unlikely his opinion would make a difference.

So instead, he helped her train. He taught her as he had taught his Robins, he offered her a better suit and access to the Batcave and it’s equipment, he began to include her in plans and strategies. Batgirl was here to stay, or so it seemed.

They argued a lot, her and Bruce. The arguments were ugly, and loud, and cut deep. She still wanted to work as a vigilante, but the title of Batgirl didn’t feel right. So she went back to the drawing board and eventually decided on one of her first ideas back when she had been fighting in thrift store leather. Tim helped her with the suit, encouraged her to embrace a slightly brighter colour scheme.

And thus, Spoiler was born.

—————

Bruce was gone, and it was down to Damian to fill in the cowl. He was gone, dead, and they didn’t even have a body to bury alongside the late Waynes.

Tim seemed to be drifting, Robin was never seen alongside Batman. It took over a month for him to build up the courage to approach Damian, to try and explain that somehow, Bruce may still be alive.

He was ready to drop the mantle of Robin, but he wasn’t quite ready to cut his connection to his old life. Tim could never be a dynamic duo with Damian. But his elder brother understood, and helped him put together a new identity. A name inspired by the Tim Drake of a parallel world, with a costume designed to suit his oncoming mission.

With the promise of help should he ever need it, and the support of Tim’s own team of Teen Titans, he set off across the world to find clues that his father may still be alive. He drove away with a new name too, Red Robin.

Not two months later, Batman returned to his car to find three of his tyres gone.

—————

Damian didn’t want a Robin.

He didn’t like children, was certain he wasn’t that good of a brother, and was sure he would make a terrible mentor. Somehow, he got a Robin anyway.

Said child turned out to be a street rat named Jason, who had instantly insulted Batman and hit him with a tire iron within five seconds of their first meeting. Honestly, Damian was impressed that he tried. He was in no way prepared to handle a child, but ended up taking back to the manor a skinny and dirty thirteen-year-old who he was pretty certain had lice.

Once he had acquired Jason, much to his internal horror and displeasure, he was determined not to introduce him to crime fighting. Said plan went straight out the window almost instantly. So there Damian was, training a new Robin.

He didn’t feel like a father, more like an older brother. But that worked for the two of them, and soon enough a new Robin hit the night sky. Jason never joined or formed a team of his own like his predecessors had, though he tagged along and filled in for Tim in the occasional Teen Titans mission. It suited him, he was an antisocial child.

And he was Robin.

—————

Sometimes, Damian’s upbringing in the League haunted him. He worried about what could have happened, what he could have been like had he stayed with his mother. At the age of eleven, he was proficient in martial arts and survival skills. On quiet nights, he wondered how deadly he could have been.

Cassandra answered that question.

Damian hadn’t intended on finding her, but he did. Even though she had attacked him, he felt for her. She somehow represented what he could have been, and it made him feel ill. It took weeks of careful planning, communicating to her through hand gestures and the occasional drawing. Eventually she got the message, he wanted to make her family.

He hadn’t wanted her to be Batgirl, but fate had other ideas. For years to come, he would blame Steph for being a terrible influence. But secretly, he was glad of the company she provided on the lonely nights. Jason adored her, though they often had a little trouble communicating, and Tim (on his few and far between visits back home) held some fondness for her.

Damian had no idea how he would explain it all to his father.

—————

As it turned out, Tim had been right all along. Not only did he have proof Bruce was alive, he knew how to bring him back.

Which had led to a very awkward conversation with Bruce about the two new children in the house.

Damian returned to Blüdhaven, he was no longer needed in Gotham, and had been somewhat missing his old costume. He and Bruce seemed to do nothing but argue, especially about his choice to take on a new Robin. 

He kept in contact with Jason, they met up for missions and secret trips to the ice cream parlour. Jason worked well with Bruce, but not as well as he had with Damian. And he couldn’t help but feel that Bruce didn’t want him there, or like him as Robin.

When Jason discovered the truth about his mother, Damian met up with him over pizza and helped him track down the women he suspected.

Two weeks later, he would regret that decision.

—————

Jason was dead and the Joker had done it. Blaming the Joker made it easier. For Bruce anyway.

Damian couldn’t quite push the blame entirely onto the Joker, no matter how ridiculous it sounded when he had explained it to Jon, he felt responsible for helping his younger brother find Sheila in the first place.

And now he was dead.

Batman decided there would be no more Robins. But that didn’t feel enough, he still worried for the children he had taken into his home and loved like his own blood son. So he decided that Batgirl would be no more. Red Robin retreated to his Teen Titans, rarely if ever being seen in Gotham.

Bruce had decided there would be no more sidekicks.

He shouldn’t have been surprised when Cassandra snuck out of her window, clutching a newly sewn Black Bat costume to her chest.

And Damian wasn’t surprised when, months later, after decades of tireless work and injuries, Bruce decided to give the cowl to his eldest child.

—————

Damian was a good Batman. He kept the streets of Gotham safe, he fought crime, he solved murders, and he most certainly didn’t take time off. The latter habit was a matter of contention with Bruce, who insisted that his son take a little time off, under the guise of taking time to appreciate the city he protected. These outings had led to a night at the circus.

That was how Damian Wayne ended up with another tiny child, this one in the form of a twelve-year-old Romani who insisted on being referred to as Dick, no matter how phallic the connotations may be.

He was determined this child would not be Robin.

Dick was determined he would be Robin.

And no matter how much training he had been through, no matter the trials of both the league and Bruce, he couldn’t resist the demands and puppy dog eyes of a tiny child.

So he had taken precautions; thick armour plating, multiple trackers, over a year of rigorous training, and dozens of lectures on safety. He wouldn’t lose another brother.

Dick turned out to be the burst of sunshine his Batman needed, and when they finally hit the rooftops together, everything seemed fine with the world. He was good in a fight, excellent at talking, and relentlessly optimistic. He formed a Teen Titans team of his own very quickly, making allies faster than any of the family had managed before.

Spoiler and Black Bat were working together, and doing amazingly.

Red Robin had his team, now having taken on the Titans title.

Batman had his Robin.

Everything seemed to be falling into place.

—————

It had been a stormy night when the Red Hood had hit the streets of Gotham, seventeen years old and with a heart full of vengeance.

Talia had refused to train him to defeat the Bat, not now that her son had taken the mantle. In fact, she had tried to send him back to Bruce so that they could reunite in a far more civilised way, but Jason had refused. He had run away, spent time with mercenaries and thieves, anyone who he could find that would teach him the skills he needed.

He probably hadn’t trained enough, he knew that, but it was the best he could do. So he had hit the streets and sprayed them red with the blood of his foes. Drug dealers died before him, and he grinned in the chaos. 

He hadn’t counted on Batman finding him early. He hadn’t counted on how emotionally compromised a reunion with his brother would be. And he certainly hadn’t expected Damian to take the gun, let alone kill the Joker with it.

In another universe, he knew he ran around in his red helmet, hatred burning in his heart. But in this world, he let the anger melt away as his Batman carried him home to the safety of Wayne manor.

Of course, after the drama of his return died down, the matter of his name came up. He didn’t want to keep the Red Hood identity. Really, he had only chosen it to cause confusion, and to rile up the bats. As it turned out, Tim was ready to let go of the name Red Robin. He was ready to be free, and Damian’s former name and city were perfect.

Ready to take on crime once more, however this time with the handguns he had grown rather fond of, the new Red Robin flew into Gotham’s night.

—————

Damian vowed the family wouldn’t grow any larger. He didn’t have the energy to deal with everything expected of him as Batman, let alone family drama.

Tim was thriving as Nightwing, but spent most of his time away from his team pining over a certain kryptonian clone. Money was being exchanged over how long it would take for them to admit their feelings, but this betting pool had been growing for eight months, with no signs of coming to an end. By this point, the whole affair was tiring.

Stephanie and Cassandra were thriving as heroes, even though neither had joined a team and instead worked solo. Damian knew they joined up together to patrol, however he wished that they were easier to keep in touch with. Phones broke so easily in their line of work.

Jason had become a nightmare, but not in the murderous ways as before. This time, he had finally found himself a team, and a headache inducing outlet for anger and delayed teenage rebellion. His ‘Outlaws’ seemed to cause several dozen international incidents a month, and Damian was certain that his younger brother was dating not just Green Arrow’s former protege, but also the orange alien Dick had befriended earlier. 

Dick had, much to Damian’s chargrin, managed to inspire and introduce yet another vigilante to the group. Her name was Barbara, Dick almost definitely had a crush on her, and she was the daughter of the ever exhausted police commissioner.

So of course she had decided to be Batgirl.

But somehow, Damian couldn’t bring himself to be too annoyed. After all, he was like his father, and had a thing for taking in young and aspiring heroes, and making them family.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry Duke isn’t in this, I don’t really feel confident writing him yet. I don’t think I’m gonna do any more of the Batfam Week stuff.
> 
> However, since I’m in isolation for who knows how long, I do intend to be writing the third instalment of Red and Violets (just let me do a little more research on the lantern stuff first).
> 
> I have tumblr and I am totally up for chatting.  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bean-bean-8


End file.
